https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=05XTpBrfVL0
Hello world, Father Eric here and I’ve got a hot take so let’s put on our learning hats. So this morning I happened across an episode of the Michaela Peterson podcast where she was interviewing Wim Holf, an extreme sort of sportsman figure. He has accomplished all sorts of crazy feats. He has sat in an ice bath for one hour and 53 minutes. He has ascended Mount Kilimanjaro in the space of two days wearing only shorts and he swam 188 feet under ice, which is a lot farther than I will ever swim under ice. So this guy has been able to accomplish these impressive feats and not die. So, you know, maybe he has something worth listening to. Now he says he is able to do this with a combination of meditation and breathing exercises. His claim is that he is able to activate parts of the nervous system, which are under normal circumstances involuntary. He is able to use these techniques in order to do that. Now these are obviously some pretty extraordinary claims to be able to activate these involuntary parts of the nervous system. But he’s here and he has not turned into a popsicle yet. So perhaps it’s worth listening to him. Now, a lot of people, when they would go and listen to this video, would immediately think he’s just kind of off his rocker and wonder, you know, where he’s coming from. But when I listened to it, I had a somewhat different reaction. It reminded me of a medieval theory, a medieval doctrine about how Adam was supposed to be created. So the question was, when Adam was created, you know, and we’re reading the book of Genesis, he has all of these properties, apparently, that we no longer possess. It seems, according to the biblical text, that he would have been immortal and perfectly happy and would have lived in harmony with creation. And how exactly is that possible? Now, the medieval doctrine of this Adam’s creation includes these concepts of these gifts. So the first one would be the supernatural gifts. That is the sanctifying grace. So the this grace that would bring our souls into immediate contact with God and be the space for the indwelling of the Holy Trinity. And so this would be the exact same supernatural gift that we receive through faith, especially in the sacrament of baptism. So all of that grace that we have now, which was restored through Christ, Adam was created with. And then there’s also this very curious concept of the praetor natural gifts, infused knowledge, integrity, impassibility and immortality. So infused knowledge, St. Thomas Aquinas would teach that when Adam was created, he was given knowledge of everything in reality according to its fundamental principles. And so that’s why he was able to name the animals was because he already had this knowledge built into him through that praetor natural gift. The idea of praetor natural is that it’s something that comes from outside of human nature, but it is not above the order of nature itself. That’s why we have that fancy word. So infused knowledge gave Adam the ability to to name the animals and to even when he was created already have knowledge of all reality according to its principles. It was also given the praetor natural gift of integrity. And so there was this perfect harmony between the soul and the body that there would be no dissension between the soul and body. And as a result, Adam would have perfect dominion over his body. You know, if you’ve ever sat near an entire tray of really delicious brownies, you know that you should probably only have one. You probably only need one. But that part of you is going to be, you know, I want to eat all those brownies. Adam, according to this theory, would have been able to just thinking, turn that appetite off and any sort of appetite he would have had. He would have been able to control it perfectly with his reason, with his soul. Now, impassibility and immortality, then, would be effects, effects of this integrity. So impassibility, that’s the inability to experience any kind of suffering. And so, you know, he would not have had this suffering and pain in his life on account of being able to sort of suppress it by nature of this perfect union between his body and soul. And then since the soul was created immortal, God created the human soul and is naturally immortal. Since it would have this perfect harmony with the body, that immortality would extend to the body. And then finally, we’ve got the natural gifts. These are called natural gifts because these are what human beings are, right? That’s the essential to human nature to have this. And if you don’t have a soul and a body, then you are not a human being. You are something else, a rational soul and a body. And so these are called natural gifts just because they’re what constitute human nature. Now, the theory goes is that Adam was created with all of these, the supernatural, preternatural and natural gifts. But when the original sin was committed, the supernatural and the preternatural gifts, which were not due to him, according to nature, were taken away as punishment. So what does this have to do with our rather extreme fellow here, Wim Hof, his feats of his seemingly superhuman feats with meditation and breathing exercises? Well, it seems that and he has had some scientists work on him that, you know, let’s say he’s in this ice bath that he’s actually able to consciously through this breathing meditation and through these extra breathing exercises in this meditation, he’s able to induce his body temperature to rise. So combating the effects of the ice and therefore not becoming hypothermic, but being able to withstand these cold temperatures just by means of these breathing exercises and meditation. And moreover, there is some evidence to suggest that he’s able to teach other people to do the same thing. So he’s not necessarily a physiological wonder, but this is actually something that can be learned. It can be a learned behavior. So that’s a very interesting thing. It would seem to indicate, and I haven’t fully explored his claims and followed up on the sciences, but that seems to mesh well with this medieval theory of the preternatural gifts that the soul is supposed to have a very high level of dominion over the body. And that through some training, he’s able to restore some of that. He’s able to bring some of that back through training to allow his will and his intellect to command the body in ways that we are ordinarily not accustomed to. And this seems to have its biggest applications in growth and temperance. Our society is not a temperate society. I myself have succumbed more than once to the temptation to eat far more than is needed at any time. Like the sweets, like the salts, like the fats, it’s all very delicious. Now the goals with growth and temperance is to help give that soul the dominion over the body. And the traditional means would be fasting, abstinence, and prayer. So fasting, ordinarily that’s not eating at all. Abstinence, limiting your diet to less savory, filling foods, more lean foods. And then prayer, prayer being that soul’s contact with God, allowing you to discipline yourself by means of grace. Should we be adding new means to our temperance package, to our disciplines which help us grow in temperance? Are these breathing exercises and cold showers, walking barefoot in the snow, are these things that we can try out? Well, I’m certainly kind of interested in trying out his method. Now he is marketing his method with an app and a book. You know, you got to be careful. You’ve got incentives, incentives to sell things, to sell books, to sell your ideas. And so, you know, I’m not about to go take a dip in the river over there, which would be quite cold at this point, because I read that when this guy was 17, he just went and jumped in a cold lake and that was the beginning of his journey. But I think there could be something to this. The whole goal of growing in temperance is to give your soul more voluntary control over your body. Now, breathing exercises and let’s say, you know, exposing yourself to certain levels of cold temperatures, I don’t think those would go beyond, prudence go beyond right reason in these things. And the breathing exercises especially interest me because that’s a sort of a meeting point of the voluntary and the involuntary in the human person, since very often our breathing is involuntarily controlled, but you can bring it under voluntary control. So one of his breathing exercises involved, you know, breathing in and out and in and out and in and out and in and out, very deep breaths and then exhaling completely and holding your breath out for as long as you can. Now, I don’t think it’s likely that you’re going to give yourself any permanent damage through these breathing exercises. I don’t know, I might I might download his app. I might give it a try and and see if I’m not able to to grow in temperance with these these new means given to us. So anyway, just an interesting connection I noticed between this podcast and what I had learned in the seminary. So maybe it was interesting for you to.